The Chimborazo volcano surpasses the record of Mount Everest

The Chimborazo volcano surpasses the record of Mount Everest

A French geodesic mission was able to determine that the Ecuadorian volcano Chimborazo, 6 268 meters high and located 6 384 kilometers away from the Earth's center, is the furthest point from the center of the Earth. This confirmation broke the historic mark of Mount Everest, the top of the planet that is two kilometers less than the Chimborazo with respect to the distance that separates it from the center of the planet.

Following the results of the Third Geodetic Mission to Ecuador published this week, the Chimborazo is the subject of several digital publications and printed in the World. "We already knew that the points near the equator are farther from the center of the Earth, but a value was missing, which was to measure the greatest distance from the center," explained Jean Mathieu Nocquet of the French Research Institute for Development (IRD).

With the challenge of achieving this goal, in February, a group of French and Ecuadorian expeditionists climbed Chimborazo, Ecuador's highest mountain, and placed a high-precision global positioning system (GPS) at their summit. An antenna of 60 centimeters in length receives the signal of 15 satellites of different countries. "To get accurate data, we left the GPS for two hours, and then processed the information that was stored during that time," said Mathiew Perrault of the Geophysical Institute (IG). This new calculation also confirmed that the Chimborazo is the closest point to the Sun, with 40 meters of advantage in this classification of the peak of the snowy Huascarán, in Peru, which would be the second most distant point.

The Ecuadorian volcano Chimborazo is also the closest point to the Sun, with 40 meters of advantage over the snowy Huascarán, in Peru. The Country of Spain made an infographic to compare the height of Chimborazo and Everest. One text indicates that the second elevation is the highest above sea level, but the Chimborazo is with respect to the center of the Earth. At four points, this paper explains the reasons for this difference.

The use of GPS, which has a margin of error of more or less 10 centimeters, made him gain in 2001 three meters to Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, that went from measuring 4 807 to 4 810.4 meters, from Agreement with this system. For its part, Everest was also measured with the GPS system, and although officially has 8 848 meters, according to this other process is a bit lower, with 8 846.4 meters, according to the newspaper El País de España. The Earth has a greater radius in the Ecuador than in the poles, something that plays in favor of the Chimborazo in its honorary dispute with the Everest. Through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook, this information is disseminated under the title The Chimborazo volcano is a record of Everest.

This content was originally published by Diario El Comercio at the following address: